HCL, IT market
Topping the employee satisfaction charts is a feat which needs to be applauded
It was a time when most of the big players including TCS and Wipro preferred to stay away from the survey, but HCL Infosystems beat all expectations. Not only did it seem like smooth sailing but the company also managed to jump two ranks to get to the #1 spot.
Whether it came to managing peoples expectations, bridging the gap between top management and employees, or continuing to encourage leadership, HCLI didnt make too many mistakes. Perhaps it just kept doing things with a difference, and succeedeing too. While HR seemed to be pleased with its own performance (as it jumped a good seven points), the employees score (where it topped the list) too indicated that they were satisfied.
For years, HCLI has been the only hardware company in the BES Top10 club, and this year too it lived up to its imagecontinuing to be the #1 dream company. Last fiscal was particularly significant when HCLI divided its business into two broad categoriesB2B and B2C. This obviously was a fallout of the companys push on its SI business. As a result of this, overall business also did not suffer as harshly as it did for a lot of others.
In sync with the changing business goals, HCLI increased its HR strength, with a greater focus on peoples core competency, and understanding of the needs of the business. Also, a good chunk of the funds were allocated for training and education. A four dimension framework was developed to encourage leadership, technical knowledge, and sales. There was also a greater emphasis on e-learning.
On the salary front, the company claims there was a status quo. But one has to believe that the hikes continued as the company topped the charts there too. While everything else fits well with HCLIs dream run this year, there is one issue the company might want to spend some time on: the gender issue, with women constituting just about 7% of the total workforce. Which the company claims will improve with its increased SI focus.
Courtesy: DataQuest
IT market
The Dataquest-IDC (DQ-IDC) survey 2009 came out with the top 20 IT employers in India. The criteria for evaluation for the rankings were two-fold mainly employee satisfaction and company initiatives and programs.
Here are the Top 20 IT employers in India
Rank: 1
Company: HCL Infosystems
Points: 88.2
Rank: 2
Company: iGate Global Solutions
Points: 85.5
Rank: 3
Company: Rolta India
Points: 84.5
Rank: 4
Company: RMSI
Points:84.2
Rank: 5
Company: SAS Institute
Points: 77.3
Rank: 6
Company: R Systems
Points: 72.0
Rank: 7
Company: Perot Systems
Points: 71.9
Rank: 8
Company: Tavant Technologies
Points: 71.7
Rank: 9
Company: Datacraft
Points:70.8
Rank: 10
Company: Synechron
Points: 70.3
Rank: 11
Company: Intel India
Points: 69.7
Rank: 12
Company: Tulip Telecom
Points: 69.17
Rank: 13
Company: Sify Technologies
Points: 68.75
Rank: 14
Company: Span Infotech India
Points: 68.5
Rank: 15
Company: Hexaware Technologies
Points: 68.4
Rank: 16
Company: Patni Computer Systems
Points: 68.4
Rank: 17
Company: Infogain India
Points: 68.1
Rank: 18
Company: Unisys India
Points: 67.2
Rank: 19
Company:Novell
Points: 66.8
Rank: 20
Company: Virtusa
Points: 66.5
Courtesy: EconomicTimes
IT market, new openings
The country's largest software exporter, TCS, and largest bank, SBI, defied the stock market crash and a serious liquidity crunch to lead India Inc in a hiring spree that saw three out of every five companies adding people in the last financial year. Despite mkt crash & cash crunch, 3 of 5 cos turn recruiters in ‘08-09.
Here is the list of Top 10 companies hiring in India: Courtesy EconomicTimes
1. Tata Consultancy Services
Net Addition: 28, 307
Total Employees: 1, 26, 000
2. State Bank of India
Net Addition: 26, 691
Total Employees: 2, 05, 896
3. Wipro
Net Addition: 15, 688
Total Employees: 97, 810
4. HDFC Bank
Net Addition: 14, 851
Total Employees: 52, 887
5. Infosys
Net Addition: 12, 361
Total Employees: 85, 851
6. Voltas Ltd
Net Addition: 7, 076
Total Employees: 10, 657
7. Oracle Financial Services
Net Addition: 5, 887
Total Employees: 9, 755
8. Axis Bank
Net Addition: 5, 885
Total Employees: 20, 624
9. Larsen& Turbo
Net Addition: 5, 416
Total Employees: 37, 357
10. Firstsource
Net Addition: 4, 201
Total Employees: 21, 570
IT market
A US court of appeals overturned a $358 million damages award against software maker Microsoft Corp in a long-running patent dispute with French telecoms equipment firm Alcatel-Lucent.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles many patent and trademark cases, held that Microsoft did indirectly infringe Alcatel's patents, but said the damages awarded against the firm were not justified and must be retried.
Last year, a US federal court jury awarded Alcatel-Lucent $358 million in damages from Microsoft for violating patents relating to technology that allows users to enter dates into calendars in its Outlook e-mail program, known as the "Day" patent.
"Because the damages award based on the infringing date-picker feature of Outlook is not supported by substantial evidence and is contrary to the clear weight of the evidence, the damages award must be vacated," the court said in its ruling. Both companies took some encouragement from the court's action.
"We are pleased that the court vacated the damages award, and we look forward to taking the next step in the judicial process," said Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz.
"While we are disappointed that the Court did not affirm the jury's decision on damages, we look forward to an upcoming proceeding to determine the compensation to which Alcatel-Lucent is entitled based on the Court's finding that Microsoft did use our patented invention," an Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman said.
The "Day" patent dispute is the last part of a large, long-running, multibillion dollar patent dispute between Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft. The remainder of the litigation was resolved last December.
Microsoft shares were down 5 cents at $24.95 on Nasdaq, while Alcatel-Lucent shares rose 4.9 percent to 2.758 euros in Paris.
IT market, Wipro
In what could be the first signs of a turnaround in the IT sector, Wipro, India's third largest software exporter by sales has lifted the freeze on promotions and hikes on a selective basis.
Wipro's senior vice-president- Human Resources Saurabh Govil confirmed the development and said the company continues to invest in leadership talent and recognize them, even if on a selected basis. The company did not give details about the percentage of employees who got promoted or the range of these promotion-linked hikes.
"We do not work on any percentages. Employees meeting the promotion criteria get promoted. Those promoted get standard promotion linked increases. This happens across all levels in the organisation," Govil said in an email response.
IT industry officials said a standard promotion linked hike could hover anywhere between 8-15% depending on the level that the employee comes under. A senior industry official, who did not wish to be named, said, "In Wipro, the employees getting promotions include some people who missed it in the October cycle last year as well as those handling key customer accounts. It’s been happening in a phased manner over the last few months."
Worries for the IT industry became starkly visible last year when they started layoffs and salary cuts, in an effort to rein in costs in an increasingly deteriorating environment. But now, news of promotions, even if on a selective basis, points to higher confidence levels in a sector hit by recession in US, its biggest technology market.
Among the top five IT players, Cognizant sent a mail to all its employees a couple of months back, stating that it has kicked off an appraisal process to promote and hike salaries across levels in the organisation.
At the same time, TCS' global HR head Ajoy Mukherjee told analysts in the July quarter earnings call that the company will be going ahead with promotions this year.
"It does signal return of semi-good times, organisations are more optimistic. And the fact that companies are going public in their appraisal or hiring plans indicates that the worst is over," said Gartner India's principal research analyst Diptarup Chakraborti.
Experts also see the beginning of a trend here. Ashok Reddy, managing partner and co-founder of staffing company Teamlease said, "Variable portion of pay is already there in most IT companies. Overall, the market is positive and as sentiments improve, there will be pressure on companies to increase salaries."
However, Chakraborti said that unless there is a real recovery in the US economy on which the IT industry is dependent, real recovery isn't likely to happen for Indian IT. Also, the real signs of rebound will become visible when IT companies give salary increases across the board and start recruiting in large numbers like before.
Wipro's Govil said, "There is no increase being contemplated on a broad-based basis. Our hiring as in the past will be tied to the business environment."
In the analyst call, Mukherjee said that there would be no increments this year. Mid-sized firms such as MindTree Consulting are also cautious. MindTree's chief-HR Puneet Jetli said, "We did not do the annual increment but as the business picks up we will consider increasing the salaries."
Satyam
The ghost of Ramalinga Raju's shady dealings is back to haunt the Mahindras, the new owners of Satyam, yet again. This time in Australia's Victoria state where the state government is asking Mahindras to cough up, what it now claims is millions of Australian dollars they had paid last year to Satyam to set up an A$75 million IT hub in the Deakin University campus at Geelong.
The demand for a refund from the Mahindras comes on the back of Mahindra Satyam's decision to log out of the ambitious project that Raju had promised would create 2000 jobs in the port city of Geelong. After Raju inked the deal in April 2008, the Victorian state government headed by Premier John Brumby had, as sweeteners, handed over 10 hectares of land and an undisclosed sum of money to Raju.
Latest reports in Australian media quoted Victoria's IT minister John Lenders as saying that the payoff to Satyam was in millions of dollars. They also quoted Mahindra Satyam's corporate affairs president Sujit Bakshi saying that the IT company is committed to return the money within a month. Even as top Mahindra Satyam officials in Hyderabad confirmed the news, they played down the amount as being very negligible.
According to latest reports in The Geelong Advertiser and The Australian, Bakshi had in a letter to Lenders, said, "The need to concentrate on an extensive internal restructuring programme of our business precludes Mahindra Satyam from embarking on expansion projects of this kind. While Mahindra Satyam is disappointed that it cannot proceed with the centre, it reaffirms its commitment to future expansion in Victoria when circumstances allow."
Satyam's Deakin project has already resulted in a major embarrassment for the Brumby regime with government facing charges of having squandered away tax-payers money behind a scamster ever since the Satyam scam broke out in January 2009.
As news of Mahindra Satyam's pullout broke, Victorias opposition spokesperson Kim Wells termed the collapse of the project as devastating and said, "We want an explanation of what has happened to the money, how much money has been handed over, we want to know the status of the 10 hectares of land and we want to know what the Brumby government is going to do to replace these 2,000 promised jobs, especially for the young people in Geelong whose hopes have been dashed."
